It’s nearly been a year since our lives changed due to COVID. With all of the needed restrictions and much too much time at home, some good has come of it. Our house is de-cluttered, books are being ticked of the reading list and I’ve had a renewed passion for music.
My main system received a couple small but significant upgrades but most of my time has been spend in the study where a secondary system has really matured consisting of a BeePre2 prototype and a newly built Kaiju driving monitors with a sub and HD800’s. My digital front end sounds better than ever but it’s been missing an analog option.
Putting the cart before the horse (I don’t have a second turntable yet), an Eros2 was an easy decision. This is my fourth version of this circuit and it’s by far my favorite analog gain stage. For those who haven’t had the pleasure of building the original Eros, the Eros2 was a much needed and significant improvement to the build without changing the circuit. One of the reasons that keeps me coming back to Bottlehead kits is that they continually work on improving their products and user experience. The Eros2 is a challenging build and a significant improvement over the original. I really appreciate the thought that went into the layout and new C4S board making voltage checks a breeze.
The Eros in my main system was built to test if I could make subtitle improvements and get close to the Tube Phono in sound which to my ears was achieved. The Eros2 was kept close to stock with one cap change based on what I had in the drawer and a sub of the 6BR7 for the EF86. Paully turned me on to this tube a nearly a decade ago. His posts are in the early pages of the new BH webpage. It has lower gain but sounds close to my beloved Telefunken EF86s and the best part, it’s cheap. Tube rolling in this circuit can get expensive depending on your taste in sound. With the 6BR7, I don’t feel guilty tossing a noisy tube or two without compromising the sound that makes me happy.
The base was finished using two applications of Tried and True original finish. A shout out to PB for recommending this product. It’s much easier to work with compared to the True Oil I used on previous builds and gives the alder base a beautiful warm glow.
It goes without saying but the Eros2 sounds fantastic. I’m really happy with this build and for the consideration that Bottlehead put into upgrading this amazing phono stage.
